This Week in Words – Aug 25

by Treehouse Editors

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

I’m just finishing up my undergrad, so this Q & A between The New York Times and
the editors of the Norton Anthology of English Literature seemed like a
relevant read. The editors did not disappoint. Point of fact: I still
have the first literature anthology I was assigned in college (though I
regret to say, it is not the Norton Anthology). The reason I included
this today is M. H. Abrams’s answer to the question: Why study
literature? He responded: “Ha – Why live? Life without literature is a
life reduced to penury.” Damn straight, sir.

In a few weeks, Brooklyn will be overrun
with book nerds, while I am overrun with envy. The Brooklyn Book
Festival will be held September 17-23 and feature a myriad of writers
from Salman Rushdie to Malcolm Gladwell and Mary Higgins Clark (of whom I
am a huge fan). The organizers anticipate around 40,000 attendees and
I, tragically, will not be one of them. Maybe next year.

Did you know you can place a wager
on who will win the Nobel Prize in Literature? I’m serious: It’s lumped
right in there with football and horse racing. In case you’re curious,
it’s 10 to 1 odds on Haruki Murakami, who wrote 1Q84.

Oh brother. This is happening, really happening. Fair warning – the use of “words” like lolz and ridic in my presence will only lead to gratuitous violence.

Last WIW for August. I hate to admit it, but summer is coming to an end. Celebrate the start of a new semester (if that’s your thing) with a Daily Show mash-up of lit-related jokes.